The official reserve assets at end-May were US$3.554,36 billion, an increase of US$209.41 million on the end of April, when these came to US$3.344,95 million. The rise was primarily determined by the loans provided by the International Monetary Fund, IPN reports.

The National Bank of Moldova said that the second tranche of the ECF (Extended Credit Facility) and EFF (Extended Fund Facility) loans disbursed by the IMF, in the amount of US$144.03 million, was transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

The rise was also due to net inflows related to the required foreign currency reserves of the licensed banks ($73.91m) and the appreciation of the exchange rates of the component currencies of foreign exchange reserves against the US dollar ($21.38m).

Loans and grants were registered in favor of the Ministry of Finance for investment projects, amounting to $2.02 million. The increase was also influenced by the revenues from the management of the foreign exchange reserves ($1.51m), the reassessment of securities held in the investment portfolio ($1.42m), net inflows into the account of the Office for the Management of External Assistance Programs ($0.14m) and other net inflows ($0.77m).

Also, the decrease in the official reserve assets in the period was due to net interventions on the domestic foreign currency market in the form of currency sales ($18.5m), to payments made to service Moldova’s foreign debt ($13.2m), to the Ministry of Finance’ s payments ($2.97m) and to the net result of swap operations on the domestic currency market ($1.10m).